touch
change file access and modification times
TLDR
Create specific files
Set the file [a]ccess or [m]odification times to the current one and don't [c]reate file if it doesn't exist
Set the file [t]ime to a specific value and don't [c]reate file if it doesn't exist
Set the file time of a specific file to the time of anothe[r] file and don't [c]reate file if it doesn't exist
SYNOPSIS
touch [OPTION]... FILE...
DESCRIPTION
Update the access and modification times of each FILE to the current time.
A FILE argument that does not exist is created empty, unless -c or -h is supplied.
A FILE argument string of - is handled specially and causes touch to change the times of the file associated with standard output.
Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.
- -a
-
change only the access time
- -c, --no-create
-
do not create any files
- -d, --date=STRING
-
parse STRING and use it instead of current time
- -f
-
(ignored)
- -h, --no-dereference
-
affect each symbolic link instead of any referenced file (useful only on systems that can change the timestamps of a symlink)
- -m
-
change only the modification time
- -r, --reference=FILE
-
use this file's times instead of current time
- -t STAMP
-
use [[CC]YY]MMDDhhmm[.ss] instead of current time
- --time=WORD
-
change the specified time: WORD is access, atime, or use: equivalent to -a WORD is modify or mtime: equivalent to -m
- --help
-
display this help and exit
- --version
-
output version information and exit
Note that the -d and -t options accept different time-date formats.
DATE STRING
The --date=STRING is a mostly free format human readable date string such as "Sun, 29 Feb 2004 16:21:42 -0800" or "2004-02-29 16:21:42" or even "next Thursday". A date string may contain items indicating calendar date, time of day, time zone, day of week, relative time, relative date, and numbers. An empty string indicates the beginning of the day. The date string format is more complex than is easily documented here but is fully described in the info documentation.
REPORTING BUGS
GNU coreutils online help:
<https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to
<https://translationproject.org/team/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There
is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/touch> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) touch invocation'
AUTHOR
Written by Paul Rubin, Arnold Robbins, Jim Kingdon, David MacKenzie, and Randy Smith.
